Department Of Education Works To Build Trust With Tribes

This past week, the Wyoming Department of Education held listening sessions at tribal schools to see how the state can better serve Native American families. Rob Black, social studies consultant with the WDE and liaison to the Native American community, said students on the reservation are a vulnerable population. Graduation rates and achievement levels there lag behind non-native communities.

Black said before addressing specific issues the WDE wanted to open up dialogue.

“We were after a number of things,” Black said. “The broad question is, what do you feel is needed from the State Department of Education and the school system to better prepare you as a student for a career, or for college, or for a high quality of life?”

He said they were also interested in, “What’s the most important issue facing Native American students today?”

The Wyoming Department of Education completed four of six listening sessions last week. They met with students and adults in both Arapaho and Ethete. The final listening session in Fort Washakie was postponed until May 10th.

The input will be compiled into a report, which Black said, will help shape more innovative approaches as encouraged by the Every Student Succeeds Act.

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The Wyoming Department of Education is seeking public input on how the state should regulate and support school performance. A new federal policy called the Every Student Succeeds Act, which went into law in 2015 and goes into effect for the 2017-2018 school year, aims to ensure equity in education across the United States.

In contrast to No Child Left Behind, power in this act has shifted from the federal government to the states to decide how best to evaluate and improve school performance.

Last week, Governor Matt Mead signed the Indian Education For All Act that requires the Wyoming Department of Education to teach the history and culture of Wyoming’s two tribes, the Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho.

The Wyoming Department of Education is shrinking the data reporting burden on schools in response to changes at the federal level, but school equity advocates caution against shedding too much of the load.

The Wyoming Department of Education is rapidly approaching the deadline to submit the state’s plan to carry out the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which takes full effect for the 2017-2018 school year.

Signed into law in 2015, the Every Student Succeeds Act shifted power from the federal government to the states to decide how best to evaluate and improve school performance.